By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – The last time the Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern boys soccer squads tangled on October 8, a penalty in the Lancers’ goal box led to a late goal and an eventual 1-1 stalemate.

And to open the month of November, the programs were back at it again and – for the second consecutive match – it was a 1-0 contest in Eastern’s favor with just seconds remaining.

Central had its entire team playing up but when the ball got booted down to the Rams’ side of the field, the race was on to get it.

In an exciting one-on-one footrace, Eastern’s Rocco Barbino and Central keeper Harry Ross were madly chasing down the ball just north of midfield.

And in the final seconds, Barbino was able to capture the ball, falling down to the turf as he jammed in a goal at the buzzer as the Lancers won a big one, seizing a 2-0 CCC South victory over the Rams from the turf field at Central high school.

“They caught us last game when they pushed everybody up and we couldn’t clear it,” said Eastern coach Bill Sweet. “This time, we caught them. It was a great back and forth game.”

Eastern improved to 6-7-3 overall while Central fell to 6-8-2.

But with Ross and his defense in the Eastern goal area, the ending could have been different if one of those fast Central feet found a loose ball.

Central’s Frank Palma, Joe Davila, Marco Garcia and crew had chances late but trailing by a goal with just seconds to go, Eastern’s Liam Sanchez-Barretto kicked out a ball to a sprinting Rocco.

Ross kept up with him ,step-for-step until the end, when the Eastern offender eventually squared away an insurance goal at the buzzer.

“It was great for Rocco to score at the end because he’s been in and out,” said Sweet. “Should he be up front, should he be [at another position] or whatever but he’s worked at it in practice. He’s gotten yelled at and he responded. He ran really well. We have a world of confidence in him.”

Central’s offense had chances throughout the match but Eastern keeper Peyton Cummings (six saves) earned a huge shutout.

Eastern had several quality possessions and drives throughout the fray, beating the Rams to several 50-50 balls.

“I think Eastern out-worked us for a large part of that game, especially in the first half and we put ourselves in a bad position,” said Central coach Nate Jandreau. “When you don’t get opportunities on net for as long as a time as we did, because in the first half we didn’t have much of anything, then you’re limiting amount of time that you have and the number of mistakes that you can make in front of the net.”

Ross (seven saves) was under fire just five minutes in and while defenders Mike Allan, Riley Caudill, and the rest of the defense made early stops and deflections, it set the tone of the low-scoring affair.

“I think Harry was the best of the best back there for us,” said Jandreau. “He made a few point-blank saves when we were kind of falling asleep and he kept us in the game for sure. That was one of his better games.”

Eastern’s Ty Borry was active throughout while the defense, led by Rio Fernandez, was able to keep Palma, Davila and Garcia from flicking in a score.

“Central has those quick feet and we were able to thwart them,” said Sweet. “Peyton in the back did a good job in the goal.”

Ross continued to stop the advances of Borry and Connor Policarpio late into the first period but Central gave up a late first period goal.

With 2:06 left in the first period, a foul gave Eastern a free kick and Policarpio, who set up on the right side of the Central goal from about 30 yards out, made the attempt a good one.

Policarpio crammed a shot through Central’s defense and when the ball hit the opposite side of the net, it was a 1-0 game in Eastern’s favor.

“We had a lot of chances, I thought we had many more of the chances” than Central said Sweet. “They have Davila and Palma and every time they get the ball, there’s a chance they could do something. We just tried to thwart them, maybe one guy watch, maybe guy play off, or one guy help.”

The second half was mostly a stalemate though Eastern continued to attack Central’s side of the pitch.

Justin Sanchez showed some spark as did Anthony Rogers as Eastern continued to keep the ball away from the Rams up front.

“I liked the way our forwards worked,” said Sweet. “We rotated them in. We had about four or five different guys go in. Anthony Rogers was working well. They all worked well.”

Eastern’s Ousamae Ba added energy defensively but over the final twenty minutes, the play started to even out.

Central enjoyed nearly half-a-dozen corner kicks over that final forty but that scoring combination simply was not there.

“We had a couple of chances during the second half,” said Jandreau. “Had we given ourselves a few more chances in the first half, maybe we could have put one of those in [the net].”

Eastern kept the pressure on late even as the coaches on the sidelines implored the squad to slow things down.

But a couple late corner kicks kept the ball on Eastern’s side of the field in an effort to tie the event up.

“We could have communicated better and could have maybe been a little smarter at the end but we got it done,” said Sweet. “I can’t complain.”

A slick through ball to Davila with 2:30 remaining eventually led to another corner and seconds after that, the entire squad was playing up, defenders and all.

Bu there were too many bodies in the Eastern box for any type of clear shot for the Rams and then the final goal by Barbino came to pass as the Lancers collected a huge 2-0 win.

“I think losing 1-0 or losing 2-0 really doesn’t matter,” said Jandreau. “I’m glad that the guys were onboard with that and were smart enough to make that call [to all play upfront] because I didn’t even have to tell them. They’re all willing to do that but we shouldn’t have put ourselves in that position and when you get outworked for most of the game, you have to do some wild things like that in the end.”

“In the first game [against Eastern], we were able to get one in the end. In this one, not so much.”

Both teams now await their postseason fates and will start competition on the road.

CCC South Boys Soccer

BRISTOL EASTERN 2, BRISTOL CENTRAL 0

from Bristol Central’s Turf Field

Halftime: Bristol Eastern led 1-0

Scoring                       1 2 – F

Bristol Eastern          1 1 – 2

Bristol Central           0 0 – 0

First Half Goals

Connor Policarpio (37:54), unassisted

Second Half Goals

Rocco Barbino (80:00), from Liam Sanchez-Barretto

Saves: Peyton Cummings, Bristol Eastern, 6; Harry Ross, Bristol Central, 7.

Records: Bristol Eastern 6-7-3 overall; Bristol Central 6-8-2

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